University of Connecticut Top Questions

Give yourself a break! In high school you spent most of your time under the shelter of your parent's command. You spent your time engaging in activities that you thought would make you more attractive to colleges. Granted some of those things you loved but others you pushed through for the sake of college. While you may not have been accepted into your top school don't stress, you'll love UConn. All the hard work you put in paid off, so enjoy your college years. Don't view these next four years simply as preparation for your life...this is your life. It's good that you study hard, but don't forget to make friends, go to parties every so often (it won't kill you). Remember you don't have to change who you are to have fun. I know you worry about that know, but you'll meet people who you'll be able to have fun with without drinking or smoking. Let loose and get out of your shell just a bit more. Most importantly, trust yourself. I promise you'll surprise yourself these next 4 years. Also remember to love yourself, it matters!

My advice would be to make sure to get involved in all the activities that you can and that you are interested. The number of activities that you join directly correlates to the amount of people that you meet and the amount of fun that you will have. Doing everything that you enjoy and meeting those that like the same activities will be very benificial to not only your social life but also your school work as well because it forces you to be organized and on top of your work.

I would tell myself to take every opportunity presented to me. Now that I am graduating in a few weeks I have been looking back on my college career and wishing I had taken advantage of more at the university. I got very involved and focused in my school work as well as my honor fraternity and feel like I missed out on other opportunties. For example, looking back now I wish I would have forgotten my worry about budgeting, what my friends were doing, and risk of getting turned down in order to apply for a study aborad trip. College is the only time in your life that you will be in a place that offers so many different experiences. I became very independent while in college but I always seemed to hang out with my same group of friends. I wish I would have branched out more to get to know new people and learn about new cultures and activities that I wouldn't have considered before. College had been an amazing experience for me but looking back I would advise my high school senior self to step out of my confort zone to do even more!

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior,I would give myself the following advice;to give my best in everything I do,to take my SAT and ACT exams seriously.Making a transition to college is not always easy just as life does not usually go as planned.I should learn to go with the flow.Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain and to never give up on my dreams.Whatever happens to me in life is part of God's plan in preparing me for what I asked for.College isn't about studying alone.Its also about having fun,getting to meet a lot of interesting people,discovering of talents.I would also advice myself to be part of extra-curricular activities that I would enjoy.

High School Jaylene, You're messing up! Get your head out of the clouds and stop thinking that you will have someone to help you 24/7. Take advantage of how EASY your classes are and the kindess of your teachers willing to help you. You are such a smart, no you are such an intelligent, young woman. APPLY YOURSELF. Im speaking to you now as Jaylene who is in college now, and let me tell you it isnt whatyou thought it was going to be. You only applied to one school and its the one your parents wanted you to go to. Uconn didn't even admit you into the big campus at Storrs. They sent you to the Hartford branch, with barely any financial aid, having to pay thousands out of pocket and making you become a commuter student, it has to be one of the hardest things ever! Balancing a high gpa, job, transportation, and homework, its hard. Now your stuck with wanting to transfer out of state to GA, when you could have easily applied yourself in high school. Dont wish for something to happen, you want it? YOU make it happen. With Love, Present Jaylene

If I could go back in time and give advice to my high school self I would tell myself to get involved in as many clubs and extracurricular activities as possible. In high school a person generally tends to have more time and energy to devote to these things whereas in college, life becomes more about grades and trying to make financial ends meet. Also, through joining clubs and becoming an active member of your school you develop skills and connections that will last you a lifetime. Not to mention it gives your resume an edge when you include extracurricular activities that show you were devoted to a club or organization in your school. Moreover, in high school you have the luxury of time and most high school students do not have to worry about paying for high school. The downside is you do not realize that you won’t always have this much time to devote to extracurricular activities. In college there will be much more demand on your time just to keep grades up. You should seize opportunities don’t let them pass by, make the most of every moment you are given.

If I could, I would urge my high school self to get out of his bedroom and just do something. Joining clubs, volunteering and varying my work experience to be exact. I'm sure almost every high school student slaps themselves with regret when they approach the college application process and realize they have nothing interesting to boast about. When I found myself in this position I was of course worried that admissions offices would find me bland and undesirable. But what really scared me was the fact that on paper I apparently wasted four years of life. What kind of lazy trend was I setting? I have a great respect for education - maybe too much. I had only focused on school and stayed within the comfort of routine - neglecting my life otherwise. When I die I want to look back on my life as a smorgasbord of experiences. I have decided that a fulfilled life has felt every feeling and endured every trial. Comfort is the addictive enemy. It pulls you into houses, wraps you in blankets and you end up thinking the world is made of feathers and trivial problems. I must start experiencing. Just do something!

If i could go back to last year when i was a high school senior I would tell myself to organize and prioritize. When you are in college you have to realize what is important and what isn't. I didn"t take anything seriously at all. I knew college was not cheap but I never knew it was as expensive as it really is. The studies, I am handling, but the financial is what I needed to take more seriously. Every High School senior should know that going to college is a privalege not a right. You have an amazing opportunity to go to college and you should get your head out of the clouds, buckle down, do well in school and go to college to get a degree.

College is just like high school; make the most of your experience in college. Concentrate on your studies and making friends; friends make beneficial study groups and will encourage you to do your best. It is not about the education as it is the experience. College is full of opportunities. College helps you to better yourself no matter the classes you take. Whether it is business or english you will learn more life lessons that will help you on your journey to the future.

My heart was pounding a mile a minute. There was ten minutes before the start of English class and I had yet to write the final page of my term paper. I was franticly typing every logical thought that came into my mind. I knew I was not going to make it on time since I had yet to print out the paper and sprint across campus to class, but I still tried. With every ounce of brainpower, I completed the jumble of nonsense I called my term paper. Time management is the one thing I learned the hard way my freshman year of college. Friends and partying were my top priorities whereas succeeding in my studies came nowhere close. I did not give nearly as much time to complete assignments and study for exams as I should have and it showed. Going back in time, I would tell myself as well as all high school seniors to “work hard, then play hard.” Succeeding in school should be of upmost concern and will make all the difference in how successful you are in your future career.

I would go back to August and tell myself that employment won't be draining, and that I can handle five AP classes, and Track and Field will not complicate life, and I will keep my friends, and that things will work out with A. or Laura, and I will not suffer heartbreak, even though that’s all a lie. I would bite my tongue, hold back the tears, force a smile, and give myself a hug, and say “everything is going to be alright, promise”. I will not tell myself about the pain, or the tears, or the regret, or all the sleepless nights that tested my sanity. I wish I could be sincere, but I cannot, because no matter how arduous that year was, I wouldn't change it. That year broke me, but it also made me stronger. The experience made the transition to college easy and desired, and gave me the ability to balance my life, and enjoy the little things and cherish intimacy. Life got better because I did too. If I could give my senior-self advice, I would just reassure myself, and give myself a hug, because that’s all I ever wanted.

Don't give up. After your junior year, your bad grades are going to get you kick out of school, and a few weeks later, you're going to break your foot and be on crutches for three months. It won't be the end of the world. You're going to retake some classes and get B's, and they're going to let you back in just in time for 2014 right after your foot is healed and you can walk again. You're going to get a position in a reasearch lab with an emeritus professor who is eager to work with you, and you're going to get housing on campus again. The future is bright and you need to always look ahead and not behind. You'll come out of this stronger and more determined than ever to achieve your dream of being a scientist.

Make sure you pick a major before you start college. The biggest mistake I made was spending my first two years of college meandering around trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It's an important decision, but college isn't the place to make your preliminary decision, at least. I had no direction in my first two years-which caused me to take a whole plethora of differing classes to figure out what I wanted to do. When I finally decided-I was in my junior year-facing a huge courseload that will likely require an extra semester beyond the fourth year-and a lot of the classes I took in those two years no longer mattered. If I had chosen beforehand, I could have graduated in four years. And even if I changed my mind, I would have at least been working toward a concrete goal the whole time. College is not the place for guesswork-it's a waste of time and money. Even if that means taking gome time off to decide what you want to do. It's okay to wait. Make sure you know what you're getting into.

Now that I am one year from completing college, I am beginning to see the frightening reality of debt after graduation. Because of this, the advice I would give an incoming freshman is to carefully plan your future to ensure that you spend minimal time and money in college. One very important way of achieving this is attending community college, especially if you are unsure which major is best for the career you wish to work in. The worst thing anyone can do is spend $40,000 on classes for a major that you are not going to complete, and then end up changing majors and spending five or six years as an undergraduate. My advice to avoid this is to pick a major that closely reflects your personal interests. College will only work if you are happy with the classes you are taking, otherwise you are likely to change majors and spend additional time and money working toward a different degree. Even if you decide to work through classes you hate, you are still allowing the possibility of spending the rest of your life hating your job because you choose a degree that you are not interested in.

I would tell myself that I should go ahead and apply at different 4-year universities. I would also tell myself to apply for as many scholarships as I possibly could. I would tell myself that leaving home is not the scary, you don't have to be afraid of living somewhere completely new. I would probably also tell myself to go out-of-state, going to an out-of-state college would definitely allow me to see other parts of the country.

the ony advice id give to my highschool self is to know that things are going to get rough but i need to fight through it and make the best out of what i can. make sure you dont waste your time with the wrong peope and make sure you stay in the books 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} because in this world and perfetion you enter, there is little room for mistakes and there will always besomeone better than you. like i said keep your head held high and fight the good fight because in the end all the problems you're going to face in the future will amount to something in your life.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself when I was a senior in high school, I would probably tell myself that deciding to go to a two year community college after graduating was a great decision. The only thing I would tell my past self was to make sure I was employed during those years, so that when the time came to transfer to a four year university that I would not be in such a need for money to afford the transfer. I would probably also tell my past self to change my major from the English Education one to the English one that way I could have graduated a semester sooner. I would also tell my past self that doing all of my science credits in one semester was not the best decision in the world and to space them out and not take Biology.

So much I would tell my past high school senior self but what would be most important? Instead of working full time and attempting school several times right after high school because it is what I thought I was suppose to do and doing poorly and droping out I would tell my high school self to focus on working for a few years till I felt I was ready and then look into post high school education. In stead of trying to balence work, school, boyfriends, and friends I would have taken some time to have fun but tell myself when I decided it was time to go back to school to make that my priority instead of another thing on my daily to do list. Once high school senior me decided to go to school I'd remind myself that although school needs to be my top priority I do still need to keep in touch with those important to me and use them for support as well. That I'm really not all alon even though it truly felt that way at the time.

Attending high school at Marianapolis Preparatory School, I had the ability to experience cultures from all around the world, as the school was made up of students from many different cultures, I was able to play spots that I had never played before, and be involved in amazing activities. If I could go back now, I'd tell myself to slow down, look around, and enjoy life a little more. There were so many days that passed that I wished I could fast forward to when I was away at college, but I now wish that I would have enjoyed that time much more than I did. It was more important to me then, to start a new life, but I'd love to tell myself to soak up all the time with my friends, teachers, family, and community that I possibly could. Life is about enjoyment of every minute, not wishing them all away.

The biggest piece of advice I would give is that thing will not always be easy, however keep an open mind when meeting people, finding activities, and choosing classes. It is important to stay true to yourself and values, however it is also important to meet people and socialize as well. In addition, while grades are important, it is more important not to create a schedule which leaves no room for relaxing with friends or downtime. Nothing is as important as mental health, so keep that in mind when taking a heavy course load and working part time. Most of all, I would tell myself to have fun because four years goes by extremely quickly and the serious nature that has often defined me as to be let go in order to meet people and have fun. Finally, I would remind myself that people are going to be very different from me and that's okay- just get to know them, share stories with them, and learn all you can about people because you never know who it will be that greatly impacts your life.